FHE with young kids #9 -- New Years Resolutions

Talked with the kids about New Years Resolutions today. We also talked about how old everyone turns this year.

• Our baby's new year resolution is to sleep through the night.
• Our toddler's resolution is to be nice to his brother and use the potty.
• Our preschooler's resolution is to be nice to his brother and beat his dad in connect 4.
• My resolution is to read the Boo kof Mormon in Chinese every day and give mom a complement every day.
• Mom's resolution is to read the Bible and pay more attention to her health.

Happy New Years!

Lorenzo Snow Chapter 23: The Prophet Joseph Smith

Who is the most charismatic, powerful, impressive person you have ever met? Someone whose character draws you to them and has such an influence on you that you would go to great lengths and sacrifices to do what they ask?

If you were to ask someone in the church from 1830-1844, they probably would have given the answer “Joseph Smith”. Even among critics of the church, it is widely held that he was one of the most charismatic persons of his day. This is something that will never stop fascinating me..

From the bottom of page 273:

The Prophet had the power to impress in a remarkable manner all who approached him. There was something about him which went to their hearts. This was particularly the case with brethren when receiving from him their appointments to go forth and preach the Gospel. The inspiration that flowed from him possessed their souls and his words penetrated to the innermost recesses of their being. They loved him, and believed in him, and were ready to do whatever he directed for the furtherance of the work of God. He filled them with the power of his presence, and thrilled them with the testimony of his prophetic mission. There are many people in the world who possess an extraordinary spirit of friendship and warmth that everyone feels who meets them. I have met many such men, but never yet have I met another person in whose company I felt the peculiar and powerful influence that I felt while in the presence of the Prophet Joseph Smith. It was due to the great portion of the Spirit of God that he possessed, merely the shake of his hand would cause a person to become filled with this influence, and any sensitive nature would know that he was shaking the hand of an extraordinary person.

This is neat. You can really tell from this paragraph how enamored Lorenzo Snow was with Joseph Smith. I’m not sure you can read this and not have at least some desire to also meet Joseph Smith, to see if he really did have that peculiar and powerful influence. Thoughts? I, for one, wish I could have met Joseph Smith. I remember a dream I had about 8 years ago when I saw Joseph Smith preaching in the woods. His hair was gray, and he had elegant posture and a bright countenance. As I reflect on it now it feels to me that I was dreaming of Joseph preaching to people in the spirit world. I remember waking up feeling happy.

There are some passages in this chapter that try to bring Joseph Smith down to Earth, passages where he plays ball with the boys and wrestles and rough houses. However, the amount of passages that bring out the spiritual qualities that Joseph Smith had seem to be more abundant. I think they are special, so let’s read the 2 paragraphs before the one we just read:

Toward the latter part of his life Joseph Smith became a master of strength and influence over his fellows. This fact was brought very vividly to my attention on my return from a mission to Europe. I noticed and even remarked to him that he had changed very much since I last saw him; that he had become stronger and more powerful. He admitted this and said that the Lord had endowed him with additional portions of His Spirit.

One day he called the brethren of the Twelve Apostles together and other prominent Elders of the Church to appoint them to their several labors and missions. Each sat and waited with much anxiety to hear the word of the Prophet concerning his future duties. They felt that they were in the presence of a superior being. While in Kirtland the Prophet did not seem to possess that strength and power, … but in later years he had become so strong in the power of the Lord that the people felt it. It was so on this occasion. The Elders realized his superior strength. “Brother Brigham,” he said, “I want you to go east and attend to the affairs of the Church in the Eastern States, and Brother Kimball may accompany you.” Turning to another he said, “You turn your attention to the publication of our paper,” and thus appointed each one to his special mission; all accepting his word as the mind of the Lord. …

Thoughts? The way Lorenzo Snow describes him is very God-like. A “superior-being”, so strong in the power of God people felt it. I have never heard anything like what Lorenzo Snow said about him having a power in Nauvoo that he didn’t have in Kirtland. The idea of him gaining experience points and “leveling up” 1 or 2 is fun, and it reminds me of the scripture that talks about how Jesus developed: “And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.” (Luke 2:52).

Can any of you relate to this on a personal level, where you feel like there was a time when you or someone else experienced noticeable spiritual growth?

For some more fun stuff on Joseph Smith, let’s read another passage that expresses his “supernatural” powers.

Page 270

I attended … meetings in the Temple regularly and heard the Prophet discourse upon the grandest of subjects. At times he was filled with the Holy Ghost, speaking as with the voice of an arch-angel and filled with the power of God, his whole person shone and his face was lightened. …

At times he spoke lightly, and at other times he explained the mysteries of the kingdom. The change was so noticeable that it seemed he was elevated into heaven while addressing the people who were on the earth, and then returned again to more familiar themes. …

Some more pretty powerful stuff. Joseph again sounds like an amazing person to have been around. This passage is interesting to me because when I read it I am reminded of times when I have felt the spirit. It doesn’t matter who was talking or what was happening, but in those moments I felt somewhat like I was “elevated into heaven”. So as I read this account it rings true to me, and I suspect that what Lorenzo snow is saying in his own way is that Joseph frequently spoke with the spirit.

Do any of you have experiences where, similar to what Lorenzo Snow describes, you felt someone was suddenly speaking with the voice of an arch-angel, or perhaps you felt like they or you were elevated into Heaven for a moment?

One of the most interesting things about Joseph Smith is that he had an absolutely fascinating ability of helping those around him see visions and have spiritual experiences that just can’t be easily explained. The 3 and 8 witnesses are one example of this.

Lorenzo snow speaks about how we can have our own spiritual experiences, and he mentions that Joseph Smith opened up a channel for us to do so. From page 273 in the last section:

What is the nature of our testimony? It is this: That this is the dispensation of the fulness of times; that the angel that John the Revelator saw flying through the midst of heaven having the everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred and tongue and people—that that angel has made his appearance and restored the Gospel to the earth, Joseph Smith being the instrument through which the restoration was effected.

Joseph Smith affirmed that Peter, James and John visited him, and conferred on him authority to administer the holy ordinances of the Gospel through which every honest-hearted man and woman were promised the Holy Ghost, and a perfect knowledge of the doctrine

Joseph Smith was authorized to open up a channel and lay down a plan through which man could receive a knowledge of these things, so that we might not be left to depend upon the testimony of the Prophets, or the testimony of the ancient Apostles, or to the testimony of the Apostles of the present day, or to the Book of Mormon, or to anything that was done or said in the past, but that we might know for ourselves. It is an individual knowledge.

One interesting thing to note is that the first and third paragraph actually are supposed to flow together. If you look at the original sermon by Lorenzo Snow in the Deseret News, the first and third paragraph are actually right after each other in the same paragraph. To me, this is helpful because I was wondering what Lorenzo snow meant by “these things” when he says a channel was opened up to help us know “these things”. So, I think that when he says “these things” he means the restoration of the gospel, which manes Lorenzo snow is saying that Joseph Smith opened up a channel for us to gain a testimony of the restoration.

What, then, is the channel that Joseph opened for us to gain a testimony?

I don’t think he opened up a channel, per say, as much as he opened up the knowledge that a channel exists. He revealed the knowledge that the heavens are open, that personal revelation is possible. He preached that we can each gain our own testimony, which was radically different from most teachings of his time and our time as well.

Testimony of polygamy is a wonderful example of how Joseph encouraged others to do this. There are some new pages on the gospel topics section of LDS.org. There is a short page about Plural Marriage, and there is an interesting paragraph that describes the difficulty Joseph Smith and the people around him had with plural marriage:

After God revealed the doctrine of plural marriage to Joseph Smith in 1831 and commanded him to live it, the Prophet, over a period of years, cautiously taught the doctrine to some close associates. Eventually, he and a small number of Church leaders entered into plural marriages in the early years of the Church. Those who practiced plural marriage at that time, both male and female, experienced a significant trial of their faith. The practice was so foreign to them that they needed and received personal inspiration from God to help them obey the commandment.

This is fascinating to me. If Joseph Smith could persuade people to follow him into something as crazy as polygamy, this tells me that he was either one of the most persuasive and charismatic people to ever walk the earth, or the spirit of God touched people’s hearts to convince them that Joseph was a prophet worth following. Either scenario is fascinating. I choose to believe the latter. Thoughts?

So while the very idea of polygamy can be a trial of faith for some members nowadays, I think that one way for it to be faith-promoting is to look at the testimony of some of the very first saints in Joseph’s inner circle who practiced it. It seems that in most instances, Joseph encouraged those he approached about polygamy to seek out their own testimony. Just as we read from the manual earlier that “Joseph Smith was authorized to open up a channel and lay down a plan through which man could receive a knowledge of these things”, many early saints have great stories about receiving a testimony about polygamy.

The following quote from Elizabeth Whitney, husband of Bishop Newell K Whitney,  is taken from a scholar’s named Brian Hales and his work on a multi-volume set about Joseph Smith’s polygamy.

Joseph had the most implicit confidence in my husband’s uprightness and integrity of character, and so he confided to him the principles set forth in that revelation, and also gave him the privilege of reading and making a copy of it, believing it would be perfectly safe with him…  My husband revealed these things to me.  We had always been united, and had the utmost faith and confidence in each other. We pondered upon the matter continually, and our prayers were unceasing that the Lord would grant us some special manifestation concerning this new and strange doctrine.  The Lord was very merciful to us; He revealed unto us His power and glory.  We were seemingly wrapt in a heavenly vision, a halo of light encircled us, and we were convinced in our own bosoms that God heard and approved our prayers and intercedings before him.  Our hearts were comforted and our faith made so perfect that we were willing to give our eldest daughter, then seventeen years of age, to Joseph, in the order of plural marriage.  Laying aside all our traditions and former notions in regard to marriage, we gave her with our mutual consent.

[Edward Tullidge, The Women of Mormondom. New York City: n.p., 1877, 368-69; Elizabeth Ann Whitney, “A Leaf from an Autoibiography,”  Woman’s Exponent, December 15, 1878, vol. 7, no. 14, 105; see also Carol Cornwall Madsen, ed.,  In Their Own Words: Women and the Story of Nauvoo. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1994, 202.]

End with testimony.

FHE with young kids #8 -- Christmas Countdown

I want the kids to be excited about Christmas.

10 months back I found a deal on some Christmas books. Disneys Christmas for $5 and a singing away in a manger board book for ~$2. We saved them and gave them to the kids for home evening today. It seemed to make sense to give it to them now rather than Christmas. Hopefully we can read them almost every day and get them excited.

Before we gave them the gifts, we spent time just talking about Christmas, looking up Christmas-related pictures on the iPad and asking them questions.

Then we started the santa's beard countdown to Christmas thing, which seems like it will be fun. You can find that here: http://www.tomfo.com/shop/santas-beard-christmas-countdown-advent-calendar-free-for-subscribers

You put cotton balls on each number each day.

It was fun. The kids were excited about their books. And they are excited about Santa and baby Jesus, so I guess it's a success. We also sidetracked into teaching our oldest son when his birthday was, which we have never really done before. Finding time to go on those tangents is what it's all about.

FHE with young kids #7 -- Thanksgiving countdown, days of the week

 We made this Thanksgiving countdown calender for home evening last night:

Our thanksgiving calender countdown. The bottom has pictures of things that make us happy (things that we are grateful for). Bottom right brown blob is an elevator). We are going to put a star on each day as we countdown to Thanksgiving

Between explaining what a calender was, trying to go over the days, trying to explain what gratitude meant, drawing the pictures, asking what we're grateful / happy for, the coloring, plus an opening song and prayer and ice cream at the end, we were busy for a good 45 minutes. One of our longer FHE's, and I think it was a good one. Good things about today's activity:

• Kids started learning their days of the week
• Kids started to understand better what gratitude is
• We get to revisit the calender every day and have a fun time marking in the current day with a star
• Hopefully it will make them excited for Thanksgiving
• Maybe for once our three year old will start to really understand what we mean by "today" or "yesterday" or "tomorrow"

We were going to watch the video of the 10 lepers, but by the time we finished the calender we were all exhausted and just wanted to eat ice cream. So that's what we did.

Lorenzo Snow chapter 21 -- Loving God More Than We Love the World

Chapter 21: Loving God More Than We Love the World

With every lesson,I hope at least someone walks away with something lasting. Something that you will remember in the months and years to come, at least subconsciously. I have high hopes for this one, mostly because it touches on a difficult, seat-squirming subject: worldliness. [write “worldliness” for emphasis on the chalkboard]

To get your salivary glands rolling, let me hint at where we are going today and say that, in regards to worldliness, there are 2 great principles that I believe are especially pertinent and that Lorenzo Snow touches on that pertain to worldiness, that will help us apply it to our lives. [write 1. and 2. on the board]. We'll come back to these later and I'll let the excitement of what they might be brood in your minds.

Worldiness is a difficult subject, because we all hear it and think “eww, that’s bad, we shouldn’t be worldly”, but when it comes to actually making changes in our lives the idea starts to get a lot more complicated and sticky, and nobody really wants to talk about it. Part of this complication comes because “wordliness” is a very vague term that can be hard to define. All we really know is that it’s a bad word. It’s sort of like a mormon euphemism, a term that encapsulates everything Satan stands for.

So what does it really mean? What is worldliness? How do you define it? Is worldliness defined by how much money we make? By how industrial we are? By how much time we spend at work? By how many expensive things we buy? By our hobbies? [get discussion going]

• Point out that the title of the lesson is  “Loving God More Than We Love the World”, so perhaps worldliness is loving the world more than we love God.

Right now I’m going to take us through some thoughts and some scriptures, first going from a place where worldiness seems easy to avoid and then to a place where it’s near impossible to avoid. After my monolog I’ll open it up to discussion and then we’ll look at some things Lorenzo snow had to say.

If avoiding wordliness is loving God more than the world…. yeah it still sounds sort of vague, huh. With that definition, it almost sounds like we can conveniently self define what it means to love God more than the world, and sort of do whatever we want to. It’s like a blank check to heaven. Living the gospel has never been so easy!

But then just when we’re feeling good about ourselves, we find that Jesus said some really uncomfortable things that really screw up our complacency. Like the time in Matthew 19 when he once told someone to sell everything he had and give it to the poor, only if he wanted to be perfect. Then Jesus went even further, saying: Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.

Great… so… we can’t own nice things (anything?) if we want to love God more than the world? If we don’t want to be worldly?

That’s one of those scriptures that most Christians, Mormons included, probably try to sweep under the carpet because it makes us too uncomfortable. But us Mormons have it rough because we go to the temple and covenant to dedicate our all to the kingdom of God. Suddenly that scripture in Matthew 19 that we always avoided comes back to bite us hard, and instead of avoiding it we promise to live it. Great….

Oh! But then we remember that those silly saints in the early church couldn’t handle this “law of consecration”, so God gave us the concrete law of tithing instead. All we have to do is pay our 10% and we are no longer “worldy”. Right? Me 1, worldiness 0. Nice. Glad that issue is finally resolved.

Except… aren’t there millions of scriptures in the Book of Mormon and Bible telling us we’ll go to Hell if we don’t give money and clothes and food to poor people? Like Lazarus and the rich man? Or the scriptures that tell us not to lay up treasures on earth or in our bank account?

So I’ve tried to show that this is a complex subject, and I want to hear your opinions on how we deal with this thing called worldiness, and how we know when we are starting to become “worldy”.

For me, I already mentioned there were two principles that help us practically deal with worldiness.

1. One heart and one mind

The first is whether or not I am one heart and one mind with ward. [write “one heart and one mind” on the 1. spot]

President Snow spends a while in the manual reflecting on his time at Kirtland. He describes how wonderful it was when they built the temple and had strong spiritual experiences. Then, he describes how everything seemed to come tumbling down and the dark days that followed. Interestingly, he basically pins most of the badness that happened in Kirtland to worldiness. Specifically, he said people started to engage in speculation, which he defined as: “unusual business risks in hopes of getting rich quickly”. He said it was this desire for money which tore the saints apart. Let’s read one paragraph on page 251 in the middle of the section, starting with the word “singular”:

Singular as it may appear, this spirit of speculation pervaded the quorum of the Twelve Apostles and the quorum of the Seven Presidents of Seventies; indeed, there was not a quorum in the Church but was more or less touched with this spirit of speculation. As that spirit increased, disunion followed. Brethren and sisters began to slander and quarrel one with the other, because their interests were not in harmony.

I think these are great indicators of how we’re doing with worldiness. if we are trying to be in harmony with our ward, to help people out, making time to serve others, doing our calling, home teaching, not gossiping too much about each other, then we’re probably doing pretty good. If we are too busy with work or hobbies or vacation, maybe we should engage in some self-reflection. It goes along with Moses 7:18 “And the Lord called his people a Zion, because they were of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness; and there was no poor among them.”

2. Gratitude

The second principle that can be our guide to avoiding worldiness is gratitude [write it at 2. on board]

In the spirit of Thanksgiving coming up, there is a great question posed by President snow in the second to last paragraph on page 254:

Now let me ask the question, Who [does] possess anything, who can really and truly call any of this world’s goods his own?

It’s sort of a rhetorical question, which can be followed by another rhetorical question of my own: “how many of you always remember to be grateful”?

That’s the hard part, remembering to be grateful. Nonetheless, when we do remember to be grateful to God, I don’t think we will have trouble being generous and loving and kind and avoiding worldiness. President Snow’s question again, this time with his follow up::

Now let me ask the question, Who [does] possess anything, who can really and truly call any of this world’s goods his own? I do not presume to, I am merely a steward over a very little, and unto God I am held accountable for its use and disposition.

Thoughts?

For gratitude to be meaningful, it must be paired with humility. It’s so easy to become a Zoramite on the Rameumpton stand, thanking God that we obeyed the commandments and he blessed us. Imagine how arrogant it can sound when we say that the all powerful being, the creator of the universe, spent his time giving us blessing upon blessing because of our righteousness. He did this for us while millions and millions and millions around the earth are suffering and dying, hungry and cold, with prayers unanswered. That’s uncomfortable. It’s not gratitude if we think we had anything to do with it, that’s just pride. We must remember that we are unprofitable servants, that we got more than we deserve. We know living the gospel brings happiness and blessings, but there's not much more we can say than that. It can only be when we think of the grace of God, of Christ’s suffering for us sinners, of receiving blessings unearned, of blessings as tender mercies that comes to us unworthy souls, it’s only then that our hearts can really be touched towards forsaking worldiness. When I remember like Paul that by the grace of God I am what I am (1 cor 15:10), it is only then that I can hope to have true gratitude and overcome worldiness by loving our fellow man.

Any thoughts or experiences?

I testify that none of us will ever earn our way to heaven. Christ did that for us, and if we can remember that it is by his grace any of us are standing here today, I know we will have power to overcome the world, helping others as we achieve unity and harmony with the saints.

Brigham Young quote to possibly share during lesson:

This will become the great highway of the nations. Kings and emperors and the noble and wise of the earth will visit us here, while the wicked and ungodly will envy us our comfortable homes and possessions....

The worst fear that I have about this people is that they will get rich in this country, forget God and his people, wax fat, and kick themselves out of the Church and go to hell. This people will stand mobbing, robbing, poverty, and all manner of persecution, and be true. But my greater fear for them is that they cannot stand wealth; and yet they have to be tried with riches, for they will become the richest people on this earth. (Brigham Young: The Man and His Work, 4th ed., p.126-129)

FHE with young kids #6 -- LDS singalong

I'm sure my 2 and 3 year old would be happy singing songs for the entire family home evening. That's pretty much what we did tonight, plus some drawing on our pumpkins that we're going to carve on Wednesday. My wife and I aren't very musically talented. Luckily, there's an amazing app we use that helps us out. It's called LDS children's singalong. Kids in general seem to love singing, but add some technology and they are hooked.

The app is kinda pricey. We got it for $5 a year ago on itunes, and now it's $7. I think it's $5 on android. It was worth every penny, however. We use it every week. It's got all the children's hymns, with audio and pretty pictures and karaoke style lyrics. Our kids can't read yet, but it keeps me entertained at least.

notice the karaoke style lyrics

My adorable kids using the app:

FHE with young kids #5 -- Saying sorry (again) and learning our phone number

Decided we could use some more lessons on saying sorry. Something that toddlers probably can't get enough of!

Our kids have watched the story about Jonah several times. We started by talking about it. Of course, all they really remembered was that Jonah got swallowed by a big fish. We talked about how the reasons why was because God told him to go to Ninevah to help people, but he ran away instead on a boat. When a fish swallowed him, he prayed and repented. he told God he was sorry. Then he promised to be a good boy again and help God.

Then we watched the video again, discussing it along the way. Luckily the video literally talks about Jonah praying and saying sorry to God.

http://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2010-12-38-chapter-38-jonah?category=old-testament/old-testament-stories

Then we read another friend story about saying sorry. This one wasn't as good as the last one we read, but oh well.

http://media.ldscdn.org/pdf/magazines/friend-november-2012/2012-11-24-for-little-friends-eng.pdf?download=true

As a random addition to our FHE, I thought it wise we start teaching our oldest our phone number. Surprisingly, within a matter of minutes he was able to memorize it! If he still remembers it tomorrow, I'll be amazed. Brilliant little 3 year old.

Then we had donut holes as a reward.

Prophet's Paradox

D&C 21:3 "For his word ye shall receive, as if from mine own mouth, in all patience and faith."

Notice the distinction, that we are to receive the prophet's word "as if" it is from God's mouth, and not that his word "is" God's word. This leaves room for the weakness of man. Prophets cannot possibly always speak the word of God, being human and prone to error. Nonetheless, when they speak we should hear their words, for even in their imperfections they carry a mantle that demands a holy respect. I do not think this calls for blind obedience, but it does require us to engage in heavy scrutiny towards our doubts. Prophets have made mistakes and don't always speak God's word. I am not so sure God will fault us if we earnestly believe something a prophet has said is incorrect. Nonetheless, God will bless  us as we consider the prophet's words as God's words.

Thus is the paradox of imperfect beings speaking in behalf of an almighty perfect God.

FHE with young kids #4 -- Saying sorry

We went through a phase where the kids didn't seem to care when they made a mistake, such as spilling the milk or hurting a sibling. Then, probably due to our reaction, they would look down in a guilty, eye-contact-avoiding freeze when they screwed up and we called them out. This lesson is to try and teach them to say sorry, be sorry, and then move on. Learning to be sorry is a steep learning curve... one step at a time!

We read this article together:

http://media.ldscdn.org/pdf/magazines/friend-july-2012/2012-07-21-for-little-friends-eng.pdf

Then boy #2 accidentally hit boy #1 on the head. Boy #1 cried, boy #2 refused to say I'm sorry, and then he went to time out. Talk about good timing!

Then watched this:

 

They loved it, so we watched it again.

Then we had icecream.

Lorenzo Snow Chapter 19 -- Missionary Work: “To Reach Every Human Heart”

Teachings of the Prophet Lorenzo Snow Chapter 19 -- Missionary Work: “To Reach Every Human Heart”

[Have the word “guilt” written on the chalkboard before class begins in large letters]

Today’s lesson is on missionary work! I thought a quote from Elder Ballard’s talk Put your trust in the Lord  last week in general conference seemed relevant to share right now:

We know that when someone gets up to give a talk in sacrament meeting and says, “Today I’ll be talking about missionary work,” or perhaps even when Elder Ballard gets up in general conference and says the same thing, some of you listening may think, “Oh no, not again; we have heard this before.”

Now, we know that no one likes feeling guilty. Perhaps you feel you may be asked to do unrealistic things in your relationships with friends or neighbors. With the help of the Lord, let me remove any fear you or any of our full-time missionaries may have in sharing the gospel with others.

My goal for today’s lesson is to get us away from feeling guilty or overwhelmed about missionary work. [Cross “guilt” out on the chalkboard, draw an arrow and write the word “excitement”].

There’s a lot of reasons we can lose excitement for missionary work. Perhaps out life gets busy or overwhelmed, and we don’t feel like we have time to do anything. Or, perhaps our testimony has changed a little bit. For those of us that went on missions and did missionary work nonstop for 2 years, there might have been a particular focus to your testimony. The way we shared the gospel then might have been somewhat scripted, or at least focused more often than not on a particular facet of the gospel or our testimony. And now that we’re older, the things that once seemed important for us to share with others change a bit. Maybe you have doubts that you’ve never experienced before, maybe your political views have changed, maybe complicated life experiences make the world seem less black and white than it used to be, maybe you’ve had difficult trials that didn’t have easy answers. The point is, life changes. People change, personalities change, and our testimonies change too. Hopefully they are stronger than in the past, but maybe they're just different. Maybe the things or doctrines or principles or knowledge that we value now is different than it used to be. If we don’t realize this, our testimony might be flat, uninspiring, and we won’t have a desire to share it.

A goal for this lesson is that we will be able to pause and ponder what parts of the gospel really matter to us and make us happy. If we can figure that out, then it should be easier and more exciting for us to share those parts with other people. This relates to a quote in the manual on page 226:

When a man receives knowledge, he is prompted to impart it to others; when a man becomes happy, the spirit that surrounds him teaches him to strive to make others happy.

Before we discuss the things in church that make us happy, let’s warm up with a little exercise. There’s some things in life that are so good, that we’re excited to share them with our friends. You might even feel ethically inclined or obligated to let your friends know about them. You might feel obligated, but at the same time you’re excited to share. Let’s make a list of these things on the board, and I’ll go first.

• Free food in the lounge
• Good study resources
• A good deal
• When I saw the new Les Miserables
• etc [class responses]

Now, I’d like to make a list on the board of the things that personally mean a lot to you about the church. Things that really make you happy. Perhaps, they are things that are so great to you that you wouldn’t feel embarrassed to share them with others. Importantly, the things on this list might not be that important to everyone. One principle or facet of the gospel that is meaningful to one person might not be meaningful to another. And so, as we share with each other right now, please share why it’s personally meaningful to you. Hearing everyone's personal mini-testimony about the most meaningful parts of the gospel for them is the crux of the lesson, so I want to hear from a lot of you. Again, I’ll go first.

• There is an afterlife. I’m starting to see a lot of death in the hospital. Once on an ER shift, an old man randomly coded right next door in radiology. We all ran over and started doing CPR, giving him injections, shocking him, but it was no use. Fifteen minutes later, the time of death was called. I helped lift his body unto a stretcher and cover it with a sheet. Death is kinda freaky. I’ll never walk past that area in the hospital without remembering somebody died there. It’s kinda freaky when somebody else dies, but when death strikes close to home, or seems to be coming your way, it can be terrifying. My faith in God that has come through being a member of this church has led me to believe that there is an afterlife. That faith is so comforting, and is something that I am happy to share with others.
• etc [class responses]

This list is great. It gives me faith in something that Elder Ballard said in the conference talk that I quoted at the beginning of the lesson:

Brothers and sisters, fear will be replaced with faith and confidence when members and the full-time missionaries kneel in prayer and ask the Lord to bless them with missionary opportunities. Then, we must demonstrate our faith and watch for opportunities to introduce the gospel of Jesus Christ to our Heavenly Father’s children, and surely those opportunities will come. These opportunities will never require a forced or a contrived response. They will flow as a natural result of our love for our brothers and sisters. Just be positive, and those whom you speak with will feel your love. They will never forget that feeling, though the timing may not be right for them to embrace the gospel. That too may change in the future when their circumstances change.

There’s no gimmicks to sharing the gospel. We don’t have to force anything, and it’s not like that would work anyway. Just be positive! Focus on the things that make us happy, be positive, and love others! I’m hoping that this takes the stress out of everything and motivates us.

President snow says something that relates to this view of sharing the gospel on page 230

You have the fullest authority conferred upon you, but you need not talk about this at all. You will discover that there is no need to talk about it; the Spirit of the Lord will confirm it, and the people will feel that you bear it, and this confirmation and feeling will be your authority.

You will find some that think they know more than you do, but if you will do your duty as suggested, before you leave them, they will feel that you have a little more than they have, and that you have blessed them and helped them. …

Try to make yourselves agreeable to those to whom you are sent. The humility you display and the Spirit of the Lord resting upon you, will show your fitness for the position you are called to occupy. Try to understand human nature and act accordingly, in order to make everyone happy and everything agreeable. …

There is a way to reach every human heart, and it is your business to find the way to the hearts of those to whom you are called. …

I think it’s interesting that President Smith says we don’t need to talk about our authority. When he says we need to make ourselves agreeable to others and touch their hearts, this makes sense. When we say we have authority, it implies others do not. When we say our church is true, it implies others are not. This might be the right thing to say at times, but it’s kind of abrasive. I don’t know how you can say this and not pick a fight. President Smith seems to be agreeing with Elder Ballard that love and positiveness are the right way to go about this.

I know this church is an established road to happiness. I hope we can cherish the principles and doctrines that give us peace, hope, and happiness, and be happy to share this joy with others should the occasion arise.